Saturday, October 27, 2007

The mystery surrounding the construction of what might have been a nuclear reactor in Syria deepened yesterday, when a company released a satellite photo showing that the main building was well under way in September 2003 — four years before Israeli jets bombed it.

The long genesis is likely to raise questions about whether the Bush administration overlooked a nascent atomic threat in Syria while planning and executing a war in Iraq, which was later found to have no active nuclear program.

A senior American intelligence official said yesterday that American analysts had looked carefully at the site from its early days, but were unsure then whether it posed a nuclear threat.

In the time before the Iraq war, President Bush and his senior advisers sounded many alarms about Baghdad’s reconstituting its nuclear program. But they have never publicly discussed what many analysts say appears to have been a long-running nuclear effort next door.

FIRST, if this really was a nuclear site, then it points out that our intelligence services REALLY SUCK - especially the traitorous VALERIE PLAME whose specific responsibility this was. (It also UNDENIABLY proves how difficult it is to ever know with certainty what a tyrannical regime wants to keep secret. Tyrannical regimes like IRAN - who should realize that they are going to get the same treatment sooner rather than later).

SECOND, maybe this was not a nuclear site. Maybe this site was constructed to house SADDAM'S WMD - which many authoritative sources argue were transported into Syria before the war. (See HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE). It is reasonable to assume that IF Assad "took in" Saddam's WMD that he'd have to build a place to keep them. Maybe this was the complex he built to house Saddam's WMD.

International teams should be allowed into Syria at once to inspect the site.

Some of you may have noticed the absence of Rick Giles from this forum for the last month or so. He is not on vacation; he has not given up, or left in a huff. He is in jail, and has been since the 26th or 27th of September. He has been in prison, without arrest, without trial, without legal recourse or appeal, for almost a month. And why? What heinous crime, you might ask, warrants being thrown into jail with no rights, no information, and no idea how long he’ll be incarcerated? Well, the combined crimes of not being a US citizen and misreading the date on his tourist visa.

Rick was asking directions to the bus station, as pedestrians aren’t allowed to cross the border into Canada, on the 26th of last month. Instead of helping, the policeman took his ID, checked his visa, and found that instead of expiring on the 27th, as Rick believed, it expired on the 20th. He was taken into custody, and has been there ever since.

The INS, which is supposed to notify the New Zealand embassy whenever a NZ citizen is arrested, did not. His social worker, whom he requested get the address and phone number of the NZ consulate, got him the contact information for the embassy in New Zealand. If he hadn’t written my phone number on his arm during the few moments he had alone with his stuff, nobody would have any idea where he is. He used his one phone-call to call me, and I have harassed, begged, and bluffed my way to getting his address, inmate number, and all the information I can get, which is woefully little.

I have made contact with the NZ consulate in Chicago, and the Embassy in Washington DC. I informed them that one of their citizens had been summarily tossed into prison for the smallest offense imaginable. You’ll be glad to know that they are using their full diplomatic might on his behalf. They are making a file. They faxed him a letter informing him of his rights, which amount to nothing. They are very friendly and courteous, and try to be helpful. However, unless the US starts to torture Rick, there’s nothing they can do. Apparently the US government can hold him as long as they want, for whatever reason (or lack thereof) they choose.

This is a plea, dear SOLOists, from me. If anyone has any experience with dealing with the INS, or with the US Justice system… if anyone knows anything or anyone who can help, or even give advice, please contact me. I have done everything I can think of, and he’s still there, no court date, no rights, and no expectation of release. I can write letters to him, and send him books, writing materials, and stamps. However, I don’t even know where to begin to get him free.

In the terrorism case of two young Egyptian nationals and University of South Florida students arrested Aug. 4 in South Carolina, fascinating twists and turns abound... Yet this compelling drama has drawn scant attention from the mainstream media. And while apologists might attempt to write off the paucity of coverage for various reasons, a slew of other terrorism cases since September 11 have been met with the same media disinterest.

Following the arrests of Mr. Mohamed and Mr. Megahed on Aug. 4 with explosives in the trunk of their car — just seven miles from a naval weapons base in Goose Creek, S.C. — The Washington Post and New York Times made fleeting references...

When someone with seething anger toward U.S. soldiers drives a car filled with explosive materials two states away to a naval station, how is that not major news?

Contrast that to the coverage afforded the recent mistrial in the government's case against Holy Land Foundation, an alleged front for Hamas.

The mistrial was spun by most mainstream media outlets as a major defeat to U.S. counterterrorism efforts. The New York Times dedicated over 1,200 words in a page-one story...

I have come to the inescapable conclusion that the mainstream media is indistinguishable from the enemy. Read the whole thing.

KIM PRIESTAP: This is a press release you probably won't see reported in the mainstream media:

From OPFOR:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

RELEASE No. 20071026-01 -- October 26, 2007

Members of the Iraqi Army in Besmaya collected a donation for the San Diego, Calif., fire victims Thursday night at the Besmaya Range Complex in a moving ceremony to support Besmaya's San Diego residents.

Iraqi Army Col. Abbass, the commander of the complex, presented a gift of $1,000 to U.S. Army Col. Darel Maxfield, Besmaya Range Complex officer in charge, Multi-National Security Transition Command Iraq, to send to the fire victims in California.

The money was collected from Iraqi officers and enlisted soldiers in Besmaya. In a speech given during the presentation, Col. Abbass stated that he and the Iraqi soldiers were connected with the American people in many ways, and they will not forget the help that the American government has given the Iraqi people. Abbass was honored to participate by sending a simple fund of $1,000 to the American people in San Diego, to lower the suffering felt by the tragedy.

A couple of weeks ago a British reader who calls himself Seneca III asked us to post “A Letter to my People”. Today he has sent this follow-up.

A personal note: I was in Britain on Tuesday, the day the news story he refers to came out, and I read the story in the print version of The Times. It’s not an isolated event: almost every day the papers report similar atrocities of “justice” coming out of Britain’s judicial system.

Peter Voisey, 35, was convicted…of the abduction and rape of a six year old girl whom he had snatched from the bath at her home in Willington Quay on Tyneside.

He then drove around the area and repeatedly sexually abused her. She was later dumped naked and screaming in an alleyway.

Voisey was jailed for life last December and told that he must serve a minimum of ten years before being considered for release.

He was already on the sex offenders register having been convicted of an earlier assault on a child.

Surely we should ask ourselves, “Why is this thing actually still alive, and why may he be free to re-offend, again, in as little as ten years time; are we suffering from some form of reality dysfunction?”

I submit that when any culture has reached such a moral nadir that it permits the serial predation of its children, it is unlikely to be willing or able to prevent itself becoming prey. Simply put, it is looking over the precipice of extinction.

I further submit that this grotesque parody of an ethos, this righteous self-delusion in the name of postmodernity, has not come about by accident. It is the result of a sustained, considered campaign of reverse social engineering perpetrated by a coalition of determined ideological aggressors. Their name is ‘The Deconstructionists’, and their Movement is ‘Deconstructionism’.

Postmodernity is a word derived from the neologism Postmodern, and is applied to the non-artistic, predominantly political aspects of that nihilist philosophy. Its bastard child is Deconstructionism, the function of which is to destabilise the existing State by slowly eroding and eventually curetting its core concepts. It can destroy a civilisation within a very short period of time.

Philadelphia - Perhaps reacting to the avalanche of 150,000 emails supporting local Boy Scouts that nearly crashed the city's computers this week, word of an impending settlement hit City Council Thursday.

The city has told Boy Scouts' local Cradle of Liberty Council it must comply with city non-discrimination policies. The national organization does not allow openly homosexual members.

If the Cradle of Liberty Council cannot comply with city non-discrimination policies it has been told it must either pay market value rent of $200,000 a year to the city or abandon the city-owned Fairmount Park building the Boy Scouts built and have occupied since 1927.

City Council, the Street Administration and the Fairmount Park Board are unanimous in this demand.

Thursday, Councilman Jack Kelly introduced a resolution asking the city to give the Boy Scouts as much time as they need to find a new headquarters. The resolution also called on the city to reimburse the Scouts for improvements made to the building.

"It's an issue of fairness," Councilman Kelly argued to his colleagues. "They are being penalized for the policies of the national organization. I don't want to have to kick out an organization that keeps 40,000 kids off the streets."

Mr. Kelly then said he would withhold the resolution from an immediate vote.

"The cty solicitor and the local Boy Scouts both want a settlement agreement," he explained. "There have been meetings with both factions to settle this dispute."

Councilman Darrell Clarke, who introduced the legislation authorizing the imposition of rent on the local council, thanked Kelly for holding the resolution.

"I know where he is coming from," Councilman Clarke told his colleagues. "I continue to be optimistic some settlement can be worked out. It comes down to the interpretation of a couple of words."

The implication is the Boy Scouts may be able to stay in their headquarters while paying nominal rent if they can find language to adopt that conforms to city policy and is accepted by local and national leaders.

Algerian government forces, stepping up attacks on al Qaeda-aligned armed groups, killed 15 militants and captured seven in the past two days near the Tunisian border, newspapers reported on Saturday.

They also seized large quantities of ammunition and destroyed several hideouts in the operation in Tebessa province, 630 km (400 miles) east of the capital Algiers, the government-owned El Moudjahid said, citing a security source.

One army officer was killed in the offensive, which was launched by a combined force of the army, police and municipal guards, based on information provided by a rebel who had surrendered, the independent newspaper Liberte said.

The rebel group may have had links to a failed assassination attempt on President Abdelaziz Bouteflika in Batna town in September, said the independent daily El Watan.

The Al Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb claimed the attempt in Batna by a suicide bomber, in which 22 people were killed, as well as three other suicide bombings this year.

The armed movement, previously known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), has switched to high-profile urban bombings.

THIS IS MORE PROOF THIS IS A GLOBAL WAR ON ALL DEMOCRACIES, AND NOT A MERE LAW ENFORCEMENT PROBLEM, OR A NATIVIST COUNTER-ATTACK AGAINST BUSH & THE GOP - AS THE LEFT/DEMS ARGUE.

The tune isn't quite as fetching as the Chronicles of Narnia rap, but what it lacks in melody it makes up for in sheer, mind-numbing paranoia. My advice to the ACLU: change the sheets and have Mommy tuck you in tonight.

The error comes in taking a group difference, which may or may not be real, and using it to judge the worth of individuals.

That is racism.

That's a quote from Nigel Hawkes, the Chief Health Editor of the London Times.

He is 100% correct. And no racist. Quite the opposite.

Group differences are real.

They are reasons to do away with groupist quotas, set-asides and with affirmative action, and to re-invigorate the marketplace with meritocratic practices which correctly judge individuals as individuals with NO attention paid to their membership in any group, race or class.

Maoist rebels fired on a crowd of spectators watching a football match and cultural show in a remote village in eastern India, killing 17 people including a former chief minister's son, police and witnesses said on Saturday.

Around 40 rebels, including some women, disguised themselves as soldiers and police and surrounded a football field in Jharkhand state a few hours before dawn and fired at spectators, said Arun Kumar Singh, a senior police officer.

LEFTISTS - MAOISTS, CHE WORSHIPPERS, STALINISTS, TAX AND SPEND DO-GOODERS - ARE DANGEROUS PEOPLE: IT MIGHT NOT BE A SHORT WALK FROM CONFISCATING PRIVATE PROPERTY AND GUNS TO GULAGS BUT IT IS NO DETOUR.

LIKE JIHADISTS, LEFTISTS ARE UTTERLY CONVINCED THAT THEIR PRESCRIPTIVIST UTOPIAN IDEOLOGY IS THE ONLY WAY TO LIVE, AND THEY ARE WILLING TO DO JUST ABOUT ANYTHING THEY CAN GET AWAY WITH TO TAKE POWER AND MAKE IT HAPPEN.

"Nestled deep in George W.Bush's latest $190 billion request to Congress for emergency funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is a tantalising little item that has received scant attention.

The US Department of Defence has asked for an additional $US88million to modify B2 stealth bombers so they can carry a 13,600kg bomb called the massive ordnance penetrator (or MOP, in the disarming acronymic vernacular of the military). The MOP is an advanced form of a "bunker-buster", an air-delivered weapon with an explosive capacity to destroy targets deep underground. Explaining the request, the administration says it is in response to an "urgent operational need from theatre commanders".

What kind of emergency could that be? Pat yourself on the back if you correctly identified the subterranean nuclear enrichment facilities operated by the Iranian Government in its pursuit of an epoch-altering bomb. The debate in Washington about what to do with the increasingly recalcitrant and self-confident Iranian regime has taken a significant turn in the past few weeks. And the decision to upgrade the bombing capacity of the US military is perhaps the most powerful indication yet that the debate is reaching a climax."

That is the implicit message of the academic journal article below. It could even be a correct message. That it is politically correct there can be no doubt.

The Coevolution of Parochial Altruism and War

By Jung-Kyoo Choi and Samuel Bowles

Altruism-benefiting fellow group members at a cost to oneself-and parochialism-hostility toward individuals not of one's own ethnic, racial, or other group-are common human behaviors. The intersection of the two-which we term "parochial altruism"-is puzzling from an evolutionary perspective because altruistic or parochial behavior reduces one's payoffs by comparison to what one would gain by eschewing these behaviors. But parochial altruism could have evolved if parochialism promoted intergroup hostilities and the combination of altruism and parochialism contributed to success in these conflicts. Our game-theoretic analysis and agent-based simulations show that under conditions likely to have been experienced by late Pleistocene and early Holocene humans, neither parochialism nor altruism would have been viable singly, but by promoting group conflict, they could have evolved jointly.

Theory and simulations are a very weak source from which to draw any conclusions about real life but let us say for a while that we should take these results seriously. What conclusions can we draw from them?

Does it mean that all war is racist and that we should therefore refrain from war? Obviously not -- or the overthrow of Hitler would be wrong and that was to a small degree actually an anti-racist war. Wars in antiquity also had very little to do with race. Ancient Rome was led by men of all races, not just the men of Latium. The Roman empire was in our terms quite non-racist. Yet it did an awful lot of wars of conquest and the result is generally regarded as a great spread of civilization.

The British Empire was undoubtedly racist in the modern sense right into the early 20th century. As rulers of the largest empire the world has ever seen (or ever is likely to see) most Brits believed that British superiority was self-evident. But were they "parochial"? They were certainly often and justly described as "insular" but they were not parochial. They were famous as a nation of refuge for the persecuted of other lands (even for Karl Marx) and they did not have completely different rules for insiders and outsiders. Thanks in part to their Jewish cultural heritage (see, for instance, Exodus chapter 23), they believed in impartial justice for all and British justice was in fact at that time famous for exactly that.

Yes: I know that Mosaic justice DID discriminate in some ways between Hebrews and non-Hebrews but it did also stress impartiality and it was certainly the message of impartiality that British Christians got from the Old Testament (Exodus is where those pesky "Ten Commandments" come from). It even led British Christians to see slavery as unjust -- a quite unheard-of notion up until that time.

Indians even sat in the British parliament in the imperial period and when a British army general went over the line in his efforts to maintain imperial order, as General Dyer did in the Amritsar massacre, sanctions came into play and General Dyer was dismissed. At the very height of the empire, the British Conservative Party even made a Jew their Prime Minister -- and a Jew who flaunted his Jewish difference at that. How "hostile" to outsiders can you get?

Nobody would claim perfection for British society of the imperial period (though I personally think it was remarkably good) but it was recognizably at least as fair and impartial as the most fanatically anti-racist society the world has ever seen: The USA of today. So even racist societies may not be parochial and the societies of the Anglosphere today are certainly not parochial. So the "research" reported above is essentially irrelevant to anything but an understanding of primitive tribes.

HERE'S A GREAT POST ON ONE OF THE KEY ENEMY PROPAGANDISTS OF THE WRITTEN WORD (WHO IS NOW ON A BOOK TOUR), FROM CHICKENHAWK EXPRESS:

I've read many stories and articles from Iraq by "independent" reporter Dahr Jamail. For some reason, he's flown under the radar on the right while leading the charge against American Imperialist Occupiers for the left. Don't believe me - google "war crimes" and "american military in Iraq". Most of the items will either have a Dahr Jamail byline or have a statement from him in the story or will have a trail of crumbs leading back to this rat's lair.

... While Jamail pats himself on the back and the lemmings on the left throw roses at his feet, I'm waiting on a response from the command at Ft. Drum regarding his latest claims in the article "US soldiers shy from battle in Iraq". Since he used members of IVAW as his sources, the claims are doubly suspect. Ft. Drum has promised me a response by Tuesday so I'll let you know what I uncover.

While we're waiting for a response, take a moment to read Jamail's testimony at Ramsey Clark's War Crimes Tribunal in Iraq about "Iraqi Hospitals Ailing Under Occupation" to get a true feel of where this "reporter" is coming from...

SWAT, Pakistan — Islamic militants reportedly captured and beheaded three militiamen and a police officer Friday while government troops and helicopter gunships attacked the nearby stronghold of a radical cleric in northwestern Pakistan.

The fighting came a day after at least 20 people were killed in a suicide bombing in another area of Swat district, as the conflict intensifies between the government of President Pervez Musharraf and pro-Taliban forces.

The militants displayed four severed heads in Imam Dheri village near Swat, said Badshah Gul Wazir, home secretary of the North-West Frontier Province, which borders Afghanistan.

A few hours earlier, militiamen with the provincial Frontier Constabulary, supported by army helicopters, attacked the base of cleric Maulana Fazlullah, who runs a seminary in Imam Dheri and leads a band of armed militants.

Hundreds of villagers fled as the two sides battled across the Swat River, firing grenade launchers, mortars and other weapons. Police said at least one militant and two bystanders were killed. An aide to Fazlullah confirmed that one of the cleric's fighters was killed.

Villagers said four gunships were hovering over the area, and reported loud explosions throughout the day.

Pakistan deployed 2,500 militiamen of the regional border guard force to Swat this week to confront Fazlullah, whose group sent thousands of volunteers to fight in Afghanistan in 2001.

Troops have surrounded and attacked a stronghold of a leading militant in the district of Swat in northern Pakistan, local police say.

The pro-Taleban militant, Maulana Fazlullah, said earlier this week that he was leaving the area.

On Thursday an attack in the main town of Swat left at least 17 soldiers and a number of civilians dead.

Swat is one of a number of areas near the Afghan border where militants have been gaining control in recent months.A BBC reporter in Swat says that the fighting has now stopped. Our correspondent says the reason for this is unclear, as there have apparently been no negotiations between the two sides.

A spokesman for Maulana Fazlullah said that one of his men had been killed in the fighting, and our correspondent says that there are unconfirmed reports that three civilians are among the dead.

Witness described heavy fighting earlier in the day.

"Heavy weapons are being fired, and there have been more than a dozen explosions. I can see black smoke rising from the hills," a local journalist told the BBC news website.

Local people are reported to be fleeing the area.

Eyewitnesses say the firing started when troops were airlifted to positions on the hilltops surrounding Maulana Fazllullah's stronghold.

MOST OF THE BLOGOSPHERE HAS BEEN HIGHLY AND UNFAIRLY CRITICAL OF MUSHARRAF.

ONLY THE USA, ISRAEL AND THE DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT IF IRAQ ARE DOING MORE TO KINETICALLY COMBAT JIHADISM THAN MUSHARRAF.

THIS IS WHAT WE SHOULD BE DOING TO HIZBALLAH AND HAMAS, TOO: SURROUND THEM AND ERADICATE THEM.

Douglas Cogan, a businessman turned associate producer and researcher for the film, said he's made it his mission to expose what he calls "the greatest campaign finance fraud that ever has been committed... the Clintons think they are truly above the law," Cogan said. "My country has never seen anyone like Hillary Rodham Clinton."

All are pointing to the new video evidence of Hillary's fund-raising "prowess." The video that's getting all of the attention is called Hillary Uncensored. The trailer has been viewed over one million times:

There's more to life than war, taxes and politics - and a lot of it's more fun, too! That's why every WEEKEND, here at THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS, we post some of the cultural things we're into, things we think you might also find entertaining, enriching, and stimulating. We just might turn you on to something cool.

After all, the arts - ALL ARTS, not just fine arts - are a big part of what our liberty is for, and what we're fighting to defend!

A narrator, who is unnamed, and unseen by the audience, and voiced by the director, wanders through the Winter Palace (now the main building of Russian State Hermitage Museum) in St. Petersburg. The narrator implies that he has died, and is a ghost drifting through the palace. In each room he encounters various real and fictional people from various time periods in the city's three hundred year history. He is accompanied by a companion, 'the European' (played by Sergei Dreiden), who represents the nineteenth century traveller the Marquis de Custine, and who is visible to the audience. The fourth wall is repeatedly broken and re-erected; at times the narrator-director and the companion interact freely with the other performers, and at other times go completely unnoticed.

The film begins on a winter's day with the arrival by horse drawn carriage of a small party of men and women to a minor side entrance of the Winter Palace. The narrator (whose eyes are always our point of view) meets one member of this party, 'the European', and follows him through numerous rooms of the Palace. As each room is entered, we find ourselves in a different period of Russian history (but not in chronological order).

From the YOUTUBE notes:

'Russian Ark,' by Alexander Sokurov, might be the most cinematically groundbreaking work in the last couple of decades simply because it completely challenges that notion by being the most dream-like movie I've seen, while not featuring a single edit.... 2000 Actors. 300 years of Russian History. 33 Rooms at the Hermitage Museum. 3 Live Orchestras. SHOT IN 1 Single Continuous Shot. 1.5 HOURS LONG!...Sure, this type of thing has been done before -- filming in feature-length, in a single, unbroken take -- but it was always a gimmick. Sokurov, that most transcendent of working filmmakers, transcends the gimmick, and 'Russian Ark' is flawless, breathtaking, and visually plausible -- a legitimate accomplishment. Many Russian films are esoterically Russian, and some of the content in 'Russian Ark' certainly is, exploring Russian history, art, tensions and rivalries with European art and European nations, and national identity crisis, but cinematically, the movie is universal. It's universally astonishing.

The narrative and narrator (a narrator in a physical sense only, more of a guide) drift through time and space as time and space become one, indistinguishable. The movie, in its unrelenting continuity and unblinking gaze, not only feels like a dream, but it sort of becomes one.

HERE ARE THREE OF THE TEN PARTS CURRENTLY AT YOUTUBE - PARTS 1 AND 9 AND 10. CHECK THEM OUT. AND CHECK OUT THE OTHER EXCERPTS AT YOUTUBE WHILE YOU CAN.

“Prompted by opposition to the Boy Scouts' rule disqualifying homosexuals as troop leaders, Philadelphia has forced the city's local chapter to pay fair-market rent of $200,000 a year for its city-owned headquarters.

As WND reported in June, Philadelphia's city council voted to renege on a 1928 ordinance allowing the Cradle of Liberty Council to have its headquarters in a building on a parcel of public land "in perpetuity" for $1 a year.

The city argues it can't rent public property for a nominal sum to any group that discriminates.

City officials in San Francisco and Boston have made similar decisions displacing the Scouts because of the group's behavior code.

Fairmount Park Commission president Robert N.C. Nix announced this week the Cradle of Liberty Council must pay the $200,000 rent if it wants to remain in the building after May 31.”

Would someone please explain to me exactly who would be in favor of a homosexual male in the role of a Boy Scout leader? I do not understand why the ACLU is out to destroy such a wonderful organization as the Boy Scouts, I certainly would never have allowed my boys to be in Scouting if homosexuals were known to be in its leadership.

I've lost my manners, I guess. Anyway, slightly belated and very sincere thanks to Reliapundit for inviting me back to TAB. Just now, I realized that I had posted here earlier today without first expressing my thanks. As I said at my site earlier today, I'm ramping up.

Mr. Huckabee attributes his support to the fact he is a "hardworking, consistent conservative with some authenticity about those convictions." He is certainly qualified for national office, having served nearly 11 years as a chief executive. I have known and liked him for years; on the stump he often tells the story of how we first met outside his boarded-up office in the state Capitol, which had been sealed by Arkansas Democrats who refused to accept he had won an upset election for lieutenant governor in 1993. But I also know he is not the "consistent conservative" he now claims to be.

Nor am I alone. Betsy Hagan, Arkansas director of the conservative Eagle Forum and a key backer of his early runs for office, was once "his No. 1 fan." She was bitterly disappointed with his record. "He was pro-life and pro-gun, but otherwise a liberal," she says. "Just like Bill Clinton he will charm you, but don't be surprised if he takes a completely different turn in office."

Phyllis Schlafly, president of the national Eagle Forum, is even more blunt. "He destroyed the conservative movement in Arkansas, and left the Republican Party a shambles," she says. "Yet some of the same evangelicals who sold us on George W. Bush as a 'compassionate conservative' are now trying to sell us on Mike Huckabee."

I know many social conservatives are nervous about Rudy but to be honest I think when it comes to Supreme Court Justices (where most moral issues come into play) I trust Rudy more than Huckabee to make good picks!!

Arnold has been a little disappointing recently on some issues but he has been awesome on the California Fire Crisis. He rocks in this video, it is a must-see!! He totally calls the Drive By Media on their pessimism.

Anyone who is complaining about the planes just wants to complain because its a bunch of nonsense.

Trust me when I tell you, you are looking for a mistake and you won't find it because its all good news. As much as you maybe hate it, but its good news.--Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger

According to the Washington Times, some Republicans are at long last paying some needed attention to The Law of the Sea Treaty:

The Law of the Sea convention, a relic of the 1970s, could become the next fight of this year's Republican presidential campaign, with some of the candidates trying to push it to the front of the debate.

Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor who is emerging as a top-tier challenger, has called it "one of the defining issues of our time" and used this weekend's Values Voter Summit in Washington to blast the treaty as a threat to U.S. freedom.

"Let's stop the Law of Sea Treaty," Mr. Huckabee said, drawing an ovation from religious conservatives as he listed it and judges who abide by international law as prominent dangers to U.S. sovereignty.

He has been joined by former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, both of whom this week announced their own fears about the convention, underscoring a wariness among Republican voters about international organizations and anything that expands the reach of the United Nations.

"Governor Romney has concerns with the Law of the Sea Treaty," said Mr. Romney's spokesman, Kevin Madden. "He believes giving unaccountable international institutions more power is a serious problem."

Mr. Thompson went even further, saying he opposes the convention because it "threatens U.S. sovereignty and gives a U.N.-affiliated organization far too much authority over U.S. interests in international waters."

Not all Republicans are on board, however:

[T]he treaty does have support of some of the most senior Republicans in the Senate, such as Sen. Richard G. Lugar, top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

[...]

Mr. McCain has been one of the treaty's key backers, sending a letter in 1998 along with Sen. Olympia J. Snowe and then-Sens. John Chafee and Frank Murkowski urging ratification. He was also set to testify on behalf of the treaty before a Senate committee in 2003, though he had to cancel because of scheduling.

Poll: Half say they would never vote for Hillary for president Saturday, October 20, 2007, naplesnews.com (Excerpt)

"While she is winning wide support in nationwide samples among Democrats in the race for their party’s presidential nomination, half of likely voters nationwide said they would never vote for New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, a new Zogby Interactive poll shows.

The online survey of 9,718 likely voters nationwide showed that 50 percent said Clinton would never get their presidential vote. This is up from 46 percent who said they could never vote for Clinton in a Zogby International telephone survey conducted in early March. Older voters are most resistant to Clinton — 59 percent of those age 65 and older said they would never vote for the New York senator, but she is much more acceptable to younger voters: 42 percent of those age 18-29 said they would never vote for Clinton for president."

World Science recently had a fairly conventional article on the deeply unpopular observations of James Watson that did however include this report:

But Linda S. Gottfredson, a sociologist at the University of Delaware in Newark, Del., defended Watson Thursday and called the museum's cancellation of his appearance "an outrage." "Prof. Watson's views are actually in the mainstream of knowledgeable scientific opinion," she wrote in an email. "The Museum is wrong on two counts: first, that certain scientific questions may not be debated, and, second, that Prof. Watson is surely mistaken and alone in his scientific judgment on group differences in average intelligence.

World Science got a lot of comments and email over it, including this profundity from a "philosopher": Watson and his supporters like Gottfredson are clearly racists.

World Science now has a poll on the question. Finding truth by majority votes rather than by a careful examination of the known facts seems to be all the rage these days.

Post below excerpted from Charlie Foxtrot . See the original for links. I am so pleased that at least some of the military are getting the recognition that they deserve

Today Bob posts some good news from the war that he experienced himself firsthand....at the airport in Atlanta .

"...I wasn't prepared for what happened today. As my flight from Cincinnati to Atlanta was beginning its descent, the flight attendant began her normal spiel about landing and gates, and assistance finding your connecting flights and so on. Then she announced that I was on board and on my way back to Afghanistan after spending two weeks with my family. The plane erupted into applause. I was stunned."

But it doesn't stop there....

"They formed us into a line upstairs at the USO, probably 200 or more of us, and took us downstairs in two long lines. Soldiers and Marines paired two by two in a long line snaked through the airport towards the Army Personnel Command desk to do our formalities. As we wove through the airport, the throngs of travelers began to applaud. I wasn't prepared for that, either. Again, I struggled not to lose it. It was like cracking the seal on a warm, freshly shaken coke. All the bubbles rush towards the cap, bringing the contents of the bottle along. That's what it felt like. I managed to keep all my fluids contained; but it was another close call. "

While these stories are not unique, I believe that is a great demonstration that the public opinion battle over the war is not lost as some might want to claim. I am sure that not all of those applauding support the war in Iraq, and maybe not even the War on Terror, but were merely showing their respect. But if the public opinion had truly been lost, I don't think we would see such public displays of support, even if the military is highly respected.

SCIENCE magazine just published a critical review of climate models by Professors Gerald Roe and Marcia Baker of the University of Washington, Seattle. It is echoed in the New Scientist magazine (October 25). As New Scientist puts it, "Climate is too complex for accurate predictions."

"Uncertainties in projections of future climate change have not lessened substantially in past decades." (Italics added).

Specifically,

"... it is evident that the climate system is operating in a regime in which small uncertainties in feedbacks are highly amplified in the resulting climate sensitivity. We are constrained by the inevitable: the more likely a large warming is for a given forcing (i.e., the greater the positive feedbacks), the greater the uncertainty will be in the magnitude of that warming." (italics added)

Just think about that: After hundreds of millions of dollars spent on climate modeling, and decades of screaming headlines, we have no more certainty today about Global Warming prediction than we did decades ago. What's more, that is a provable inherent limitation of the data and models.

AGW IS BS, A HOAX HATCHED UP BY THE LEFT TO ATTAIN THEIR LONGTERM GOALS: RAISE TAXES; SHACKLE INDUSTRY AND THE MARKET-PLACE WITH REGULATIONS; REDISTRIBUTE TAXES ACCORDING TO THEIR PETS CAUSES.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

... A year before this next election in the U.S., the common space required for civil debate and civilized disagreement has shrivelled to a very thin sliver of ground. Politics requires a minimum of shared assumptions. To compete you have to be playing the same game: you can't thwack the ball back and forth if one of you thinks he's playing baseball and the other fellow thinks he's playing badminton. Likewise, if you want to discuss the best way forward in the war on terror, you can't do that if the guy you're talking to doesn't believe there is a war on terror, only a racket cooked up by the Bushitler and the rest of the Halliburton stooges as a pretext to tear up the constitution.

Americans do not agree on the basic meaning of the last seven years. If you drive around an Ivy League college town -- home to the nation's best and brightest, allegedly -- you notice a wide range of bumper stickers, from the anticipatory ("01/20/09" -- the day of liberation from the Bush tyranny) to the profane ("Buck Fush") to the myopically self-indulgent ("Regime Change Begins At Home") to the exhibitionist paranoid ("9/11 Was An Inside Job"). Let's assume, as polls suggest, that next year's presidential election is pretty open: might be a Democrat, might be a Republican. Suppose it's another 50/50 election with a narrow GOP victory dependent on the electoral college votes of one closely divided state. It's not hard to foresee those stickered Dems concluding that the system has now been entirely delegitimized.

[....]

Well, it takes two to have a cold civil war. The right must be doing some of this stuff, too, surely? Up to a point. But for the most part they either go along, or secede from the system -- they home-school, turn to talk radio and the Internet, read Christian publishers' books that shift millions of copies without ever showing up on a New York Times bestsellers list. The established institutions of the state remain under the monolithic control of forces that ceaselessly applaud themselves for being terrifically iconoclastic:

Hollywood's latest war movie? Rendition. Oh, as in the same old song?

A college kid writes a four-word editorial in a campus newspaper -- "Taser this: F--k Bush" -- and the Denver Post hails him as "the future of journalism. Smart. Confident. Audacious." Anyone audacious enough to write "F--k Hillary" or "F--k Obama" at a college paper? Or would the Muse of Confident Smarts refer you to the relevant portions of the hate-speech code?

Speaking of which, Columbia University won't allow U.S. military recruiters on campus because "Don't ask, don't tell" discriminates against homosexuals, but it will invite Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose government beheads you if they think you're bebottoming.

Steyn has nailed it; we are a nation which has become so polarized--thanks to 6 years of non-stop partisan vitriol from Reid, Pelosi, Schumer, the Nutroots, the media, et. al.--that the scorched earth campaign has left very little room for reconciliation. The closest thing to that I have seen to a gesture of goodwill in several years was Diane Feinstein's intervention on behalf of Judge Southwick--and against her party's leadership--which enabled the embattled judge to be confirmed for the Fifth Circuit seat he has been so long denied by Reid, Schumer, Leahy, and the big money special interests pulling their strings. I also note that Feinstein was the only California Senator standing by the President and the Governator today. The hysterical Barbara Boxer was a no-show.

Will this small olive branch be enough? I seriously doubt it. Feinstein will probably be roasted alive for this by the Nutroots--and will no doubt be "encouraged" to do something public soon to prove her steadfast partisanship and hatred for all things Republican. Otherwise those MoveOn.org checks or donations from Chinese dishwashers might stop pouring in...

And so we have stalemate in what is supposed to be the people's government. It has been co-opted by the ambitions of one party; ambitions which exceed that party's desire for the success and continued position of the United States and the Constitution its members are sworn to uphold.

I personally believe we are in the middle of our the biggest crisis in our government since the years just before the Civil War. It is hard to disagree with Steyn that we may already be too far gone. Is it salvageable? Only if there are more DiFi's to be found in the majority and only if the scorched earth power brokers like the Clintons and George Soros give the fast hook to the Reids, Schumers, Pelosis, Murthas, Durbins, Leahys, and Boxers--who have stolen the Democrat party, and who seem determined to take America down with it.

WASHINGTON, Oct 25 (Reuters) — Sales of new single-family homes rose 4.8 percent in September while the inventory of homes fell and the median sales price rose, according to a government report today that delivered unexpectedly benign news for the battered housing sector.

NEW ORLEANS BUSES NOT USED FOR EVACUATIONIn the midst of wild accusations about the California firestorms, news comes out bearing on Katrina, the largest natural disaster in U.S. history, which provided Democrat politicians and the mainstream press (including the NY Times, the Washington Post, the LA Times, ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN) with an opportunity to spread distortions and outright lies in order to try to embarrass and destroy a sitting President.

Lies were published about the amount of aid that was provided, the timing of the aid and the number of deaths; and also that bias supposedly motivated the distribution of aid. The press basically said that poor people were largely ignored, while wealthy people were helped. The press also claimed that President Bush was responsible for the poor performance of the levees – performance that was sealed years ago due to local corruption and questionable decisions by the Corps of Engineers.

This sorry situation is now being reprised in the context of the dreadful fires in California. The Lt. Governor, and Senator Boxer, both Democrats, yesterday blamed President Bush for the extent of the damage – saying there were not enough National Guard on hand because of Iraq. It is so sickening how Democrats try to politicize everything that happens in life. The charges were untrue and later somewhat taken back. There are plenty of Guardsmen, equipment and airplanes available; the problem has been that conditions wouldn’t allow for their use. Perhaps these Democrats should get some facts straight before they open their mouths.

Winston Churchill once said that a lie goes around the world while the truth is still getting its pants on. The left counts on this. The details about Katrina aid have not yet been completely enumerated, but this report about the 2004 Florida hurricane aid hits the mark and puts a different face on these lies.

“Floridians who lived in low-income areas received twice as much federal disaster aid on average as residents of wealthier areas after four hurricanes hit the state in 2004, an analysis by three newspapers found.

The Gannett Co. newspapers - Florida Today, The News-Press and Pensacola News Journal - sued the Department of Homeland Security for addresses where aid was distributed following Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Jeanne and Ivan.

Using U.S. Census data, the newspapers found an average payment of $1,301.85 where the median household income was more than $75,000. Payments averaged $2,693.72 where the median household income was below $25,000.

The Panhandle was the only region where federal aid did not appear to correlate with income level, the newspapers reported. Lower-income area residents there averaged $2,245, compared with $2,149 for residents of high-income areas.

The newspapers' analysis did not include help received in addition to cash payments, such as free shelter or food.” AP

Editorial Note: The people of Louisiana just showed with their vote for governor what they thought of the Katrina performance of the Louisiana Governor Blanco, a Democrat.

“Jindal, a 36-year-old Republican, will be the nation's youngest governor. He had 53 percent with 625,036 votes with about 92 percent of the vote tallied. It was more than enough to win Saturday's election outright and avoid a Nov. 17 runoff…..

Political analysts said Jindal built up support as a sort of "buyer's remorse" from people who voted for Blanco last time and had second thoughts about that decision. Blanco was widely criticized for the state's response to Hurricane Katrina and she announced months ago that she would not seek re-election.”

Dear BDS sufferers, Moonbats, and Lefties of all stripes: you know that repression and loss of free speech you've paradoxically been bitching nonstop about for the last few years?

This is what it really looks like. From the Italian left, of course.

The Levi-Prodi law lays out that anyone with a blog or a website has to register it with the ROC, a register of the Communications Authority, produce certificates, pay a tax, even if they provide information without any intention to make money.

------------------------------------------

the Levi-Prodi law obliges anyone who has a website or a blog to get a publishing company and to have a journalist who is on the register of professionals as the responsible director.

Even a teenage catblogger would have to pay a fee and have editorial oversight in order to post pictures of Signor Puffy.

If a right-winger did the same with Obama - and compared him to hmmm let's say Mobuto - the entire MSM would be up in arms. It's a rank slur.

But Josh is a Leftie so he will get a pass. It's just like Biden and other Lefties constantly getting away with racist crap, while Righties like Lott get nailed. Saying macacca can cost you your Senate seat if you're a Republican. (More on Biden's latest racist faux pasHERE.)

IT'S HYPOCRITICAL BS.

It's even worse when you realize that Mussolini was an ardent LEFTIST - a socialist from a family of socialists. He was even named after another famous socialist Benito Suarez. Mussolini's fascism is a branch of socialism as was Hitler's Nazism and Lenin's Marxism and Mao's too.

No one could be further from socialism than Rudy. Rudy and the GOP stand for small government, low taxes a free marketplace and liberty.

Josh Marshall and his comrades on the Left have more in common with fascism than Rudy and the GOP.

As unbelievable as Col. David Hunt's allegations are, there is no question that this war has been the most overlawyered in history (thanks, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton...), nor that our rules of engagement in this War--because of the lawyers and because of America's enemies in the Democrat Congress--have served to prolong the war and cause more loss of life both for our military and for civilians.

On the other hand, Bin Laden may have already assumed room temperature in some cave somewhere long ago; sources close to the intel on his latest "video" assert that all of the "current" content was rolling in "audio-only" mode while the video showed only a still picture. The only synchronization of video/audio occurred when Bin Laden was speaking on topics which he could have filmed years ago. Not exactly a slam dunk for his still being among the living.

But in a sense, Bin Laden's current status is beside the point when it comes to Col. Hunt's speculation; the real point is that America is fighting a global war with a downsized military with rules of engagement that favor our enemies. How about we allow our brave men and women to fight without one hand tied behind their back, for a change?

Anyone who was lucky enough to watch Ken Burns' brilliant documentary The War knows exactly what I mean. Once upon a time, America and its leadership had the cojones to fight an all-out war to WIN. Today for the first time in history, those we are fighting have a good chance to get their hands on real WMD's, given enough time and enough appeasement by the postmodern, Euro-wimped West. So there has never been a more compelling argument for total war--at least not in that sense. Yet our biggest enemies (the internal ones) continue to throw up roadblocks at every turn and our media has become a national disgrace.

It is nothing short of miraculous that--despite these huge constraints--we have nevertheless been so incredibly successful with our Iraq surge is a testament to the genius of men like General Petraeus, and the tenacity of our troops and our President to fight the political battles at home.

Perhaps enough so that a Thompson or Giuliani or Romney would consider Petraeus as a running mate--assuming that the war continues to go as well as it has in Iraq. This guy is a legitimate American hero, and would easily trump any Wesley Clark or Bill Richardson the Dems could throw up as a VP nominee.